238 



NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 127. 



with very light fawn, slightly darker on the median line of the back 

 and on the tail. 



Ross published a general account of the martens of the Mackenzie 

 River region, describing in some detail their variation, distribution, 

 and general habits within this area." Coues recorded specimens from 

 Peel River (Fort McPherson) and Fort Good Hope. The detailed 

 flesh measurements of a series of 17 males and 7 females taken 

 by Kennicott at the former place are given by him in tabular form. 

 The standard measurements, reduced to millimeters, average as fol- 

 lows: Males, total length 643; tail vertebrse 197; hind foot 105; 

 the extremes are 661, 198, 112, and 612, 180, 102. The females 

 average 579, 173, 94 ; the extremes are 603, 184, 95, and 558, 165, 90.^ 

 Warburton Pike saw tracks of martens to the northward of Fond du 

 Lac, Great Slave Lake, in 1889.^ During his trip to western Alberta 

 in 1895 and 1896, J. Alden Loring reported martens common through- 

 out most of the region, and frequently saAV tracks in the freshly 

 fallen snow. He obtained one specimen, already described. 



MacFarlane states that comparatively few skins were obtained from 

 the country north of Fort Anderson, though martens were fairh^ 

 abundant some years in the forest region to the southward. The In- 

 dians attribute their periodical fluctuation in numbers partly to 

 migration.<^ 



Mustela pennanti Erxleben. Fisher. 



The fisher is found throughout the region north to Great Slave Lake 

 and Liard River. It seems to be nowhere abundant, and becomes rare 

 toward the northern limits of its range. Along the Athabaska and 

 Slave rivers a limited number of skins are collected at all the posts 

 north to Fort Resolution, and I was informed that the animal was 

 rather common in the region about the mouth of Peace River. In the 

 Liard River region I Avas informed that numbers of skins are traded 

 at Fort Nelson, and a few at Fort Liard, annually. A. F. Camsell 

 writes me that the skins of two which were killed near Fort Simp- 

 son were traded at that post in the winter of 1906-7. One of these 

 was taken 10 miles southeast of the post; the exact locality of the 

 other was not ascertained. 



Ross mentions a fisher killed in the delta of Slave River, near Fort 

 Resolution, which weighed 18 pounds.*^ Regarding the northern 

 range of the fisher, Russell says : 



They extend northward as far as the Great Slave Lake, but are not found 

 between Athabasca and the Great Slave Lake except along the Slave River. 



« Can. Nat. and Geol., VI, p. 25, 1861. 



* Fur Bearing Animals, pp. 88, 90, 1877. 



^ Barren Ground of Northern Canada, p. 123, 1892. 



^Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXYIII, pp. 711, 712, 1905. 



e Can. Nat. and Geol., VI, p. 24, 1861. 



